Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Caught in the middle.

In his recent piece entitled Benedict’s Gambit,Ross Douthat, the NY Times’ young and thoughtful conservative columnist,assesses Rome’s outreachto dissident Anglicans.Douthat,himself a Catholic, speaks of the concessions his Church is willing to make toaccommodate these potential Anglican converts, including accepting theirmarried clergy into the priesthood.He points, as have others, to its meaning as a reflection of the Church’smove away from the ecumenism started in the 1960s and of the Pope’s more overt attemptto bring those on the fringes back into the fold, most notably his “controversialoutreach to schismatic Latin Mass Catholics”.But Douthat sees this in a larger, and largely missed,context. “In making the opening to Anglicanism”, he suggests, “Benedict also may have a deeperconflict in mind — not the parochial Western struggle between conservative andliberal believers, but Christianity’s global encounter with a resurgent Islam.”

His comments bring to mind George Bush’s instinctively evoking the Crusadeword in the early days of his war on terrorism.While he backed away from it’s use, many believe itaccurately reflected his views about the real nature of the threat and consequentresponse, both heavily laden with religious overtones.And it isn’t only conservativeChristians who seem to hold that view.It is one shared by the ardent atheist Sam Harris who writes,“The idea that Islam is a ‘peaceful religion hijacked by extremists’ is adangerous fantasy”.

This fear of the other and its real agenda is hardly one sided. Times journalist David Rhode, in the accountof his seven-month captivity by the Taliban, describes young fighters who are convincedthat Christians (and Jews) are out to destroy Islam.So we may have arrived at the digital age but we remainmired in medieval conflict.In thesame vein, ultra-orthodox Jews digging in on the West Bank see themselvesengaged, if not in an overt religious war, then certainly in a struggle toprevent Muslims from occupying their God-promised land and ultimately for theirown religious survival.

Perhaps there have been periods in which the religious did not feelthreatened by those who worshipped different or differently named gods, but formany who consider themselves followers of the authentic way, the days of mister nice guy seem to be over, if they ever existed.In Europe, as Douthat points out, devoutChristians find themselves caught between widespread secularism on one side andgrowing Islam on the other.Whileboth are threatening, Islam may be more so in that it offers a powerfulalternative, rather than any loss of, faith.The existence Islam, in its very being, somehow questions Christianity’score beliefs and thus its legitimacy, not to mention supremacy.It’s an age-old back and forth challengemanifest, among others in Ferdinand and Isabella’s 15th century brutalSpanish Inquisition focused on both Jews and Moslems.In that, because its adherents had ruled their country, Islam mayhave represented the greater threat.

We don’t yet know if the Fort Hood shootings were religiouslymotivated, but even the idea that they might be evoked words of urgent cautionfrom Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr.The potential for Christian-Muslim tinderbox tensionis palpable and ever-present in a post 9/11 United States.

To say that all the world’s conflicts are religion based would be agross overstatement, but that very many have a religious component isundeniable.To be sure, even thosethat seem totally religious in nature have to be understood in a more nuancedfashion.The Taliban, for example,are clearly motivated by extreme religious ideology and govern accordingly, butalso by nationalism.Let’sremember they aren’t merely fighting infidels but also an invasion byforeigners. That said, it isthe religious ideology that produces the passion and, in their case, with themost cruel and lethal consequences.

Culture makes a huge difference in how we position ourselves.Radical Islamists seem more prepared toput religion forward as their standard bearer in conflict.We in the West, which by virtue ofsheer numbers means the Christian West, are loathe to do so or even to admitthat religion plays any role in our actions – Bush pulled back on Crusade.But we should not misread that culturalaffect.To use an analogy, theBritish are stereotypically known as people who don’t display emotions but thatdoesn’t mean they lack feelings or indeed passion.The religious tensions, labeled as such or not, are so closeto the surface that political leaders feel it necessary to regularly speak oftolerance and inclusiveness. From the day of his inauguration, President Obamahas sought to temper religious tensions and he continues to do so on a regularbasis.

Nonetheless, we find ourselves somehow caught in the middle of these religiouslytinged epoch conflicts.The termmedieval wasn’t used lightly because for many of us the struggle we’rewitnessing and the turf being defended has little or no relevance to thetwenty-first century or to us.Itis one of the reasons the Pope finds himself in a Europe much of which hasturned away from religion altogether and where even in Italy 75% of Catholics no longer attend mass.It is perhaps why no-religion-at-allis growing at a faster rate than any faith in America.So Douthat may be right about Benedict’s real concerns, onesno doubt shared in reverse by leaders of the Islamic faiths.Many of us are just tired of being caught in the middle, collateral damage as the religious face off in unending no-win conflicts.Their problem is the other’s faith. Our problem is increasingly with all of them.

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About Me

A branding consultant with decades of experience working with large global clients and brands, he now serves primarily young startup companies. Beginning his professional life as a rabbi of a large urban congregation, he has watched the numbers of the religiously unaffiliated grow in the years since leaving the pulpit. His book, Transcenders: Living beyond religion and the religion wars (available on Amazon) considers this phenomenon. Beyond his consulting practice Prinz spends much of his time writing, including this Blog. He posts to "Beyond All That" only when there is something to say that might add value to the conversation.